Shelke loves
by foxygirlchan
Summary: Because Shelke isn't the one who loves Vincent. A conversation with Barret and Cid, leaves with Shelke admitting who she does love. Shelke x ?
1. Bar

**Because I don't think Shelke loves Vincent.**

"Hey kid!"

"Hello Cid Highwind."

"Just call me 'Cid', got it? Or I'll have to spear you."

"I'm sorry…?"

"Naw, don't be. He gets like dis when he's had too much to drink, ya know? Take a seat little lady." He patted the spot next to him on the bar. They were sitting on the stools, but Tifa was busy with other customers at the moment so no one was behind the table.

"Thank you Barret Wallace."

"You can just call me 'Barret'. Y'know, people don't like being called their full names."

"I'm sorry Mr. Wallace."

"Now ya make me sound old! Just 'Barret', yeah?"

"Alright."

Taking the seat he offered, I looked around the bar. It seemed that the group had found it right to come on Sunday. Everyone was here, from the wisest member, Nanaki, to the youngest member, Yuffie. Even Vincent was here, a feat that surprised a lot of them; I included.

"So what brings ya here? You gunna have a drink?"

"No, just enjoying the scenery."

"Oh, someone to yo likin'?" He turned his whole body to face mine, raising an eyebrow. I noticed that the pilot beside him found an interest in this conversation, because he stopped twirling in his seat and his attention, or all that he could hold in this drunken state, was focused on us.

The man was huge, but it never bothered me. I didn't really mind looking up at him. Azul was much bigger anyways.

"You could say I've taken a fancy to someone…"

"Ugh, it ain't the goddamn vampire, is it?" scoffed Cid, drinking from his empty cup, and only receiving ice. It didn't stop him however; he just chewed the ice as if it was candy.

"No."

I wonder why everyone thought I liked him. I might be in his company longer than most, and I might have the woman he loves in my head, but that doesn't mean I like him.

Sometimes I do think so, though. Lucrecia's memories… Sometimes they affect me.

I feel like I'm in love with him. But it's not me, and it scares me, and this only makes me want to leave him be, for my own benefit.

There is someone who I do enjoy the presence of, however. Someone who makes me look up every time I hear their voice, or just stare at them, and smile when they look happy, content with just being able to watch and not care if they ever love me back…

Or talk to me. But this is a different matter all together. That person does talk to me, but…

"Shi-it, really?" He looked around Barret's wide structure and looked at me as if in disbelief. I gave him as much of a quizzical look as I could muster.

It was difficult, to say the least.

"Yes. Why is this so hard to believe?" I asked, looking at the pilot, but getting my response from the bigger man.

"Well, it was kinda… We just thought, y'know? 'Cause of the woman in yo head an' all." He looked at me as if waiting for a response. 'Would it offend her or not'? was written on his face, and in his eyes.

"I suppose that is a reasonable deduction," I stated, and the man sighed, as if letting out a breath he had been holding. The pilot had resumed twirling in his seat.

"Who is it den? The guy ya like," Barret asked, turning towards the bar, but keeping his attention to me. Tifa had come back to refill his cup, smiling at him, but giving a glare at the other man, who had asked for more alcohol, even when Tifa had told him he had had enough just a few minutes a go.

I looked up at him, and smiled. It was a bit odd to do so, seeing it's very voluntary on my part to do it. It usually takes a while for my mind to process the message I'm sending. It's harder than raising my arm up. My face is so used to showing no emotion that, Reeve had said, it stuck like that.

"I never said it was a male."

I saw shock on his face, and he opened his mouth to say something, but closed it after he couldn't produce any sound.

Cid, it seemed, had been paying attention, for he had fallen out of his seat. He had miscalculated his spin.

Tifa smiled and looked back and forth towards the three of us, having no idea what was happening. She walked off after a few seconds of silence. She was a bartender after all; she needed to tend to the bar.

"Well shit," Cid shakily stood up and found his place on the bar, turning his attention towards me. "Who is it?"

"There ain't many girls around this place. Is it someone we know?" Barret chugged his drink. It seemed this came as more of a shock to him then I had anticipated. I inwardly frowned, not having the will power to do it physically.

"Yes."

"It ain't Teefs, is it? She taken' already," snorted Cid, stabbing his thumb in the direction of the bartender, who had just walked back towards Cloud and their group of friends in the corner. I noticed that we three, other than Tifa herself, where the only ones who weren't with the group. Tifa seemed to pay special attention to the blonde. Oh, so that's what Cid means.

"No, it's not Tifa." 

"Huh? Really? There ain't many girls left, if any at all, now," Barret stared at our group and thought for a bit.

"It's Yuffie then?" Cid asked, turning towards me, and then making a scowl, "and don't you go lying to me that it's that Turkey Elena, or I'll have to hit you."

"I really like her," I said, smiling at the group, my eyes locked on only one particular individual.

Cid stared at the group and frowned, but Barret gave a contemplative look.

"I suppose she helped a lot too, din't she?"

"She helped out more than she knows."


	2. Reality

**I've wanted to make a story like this for a while.**

There she is again.

I watch her clean the place with enthusiasm that no other person in the world would ever be able to show while cleaning.

I tried my best to keep my eyes on her pretty face. I really did.

But I found my eyes trailing towards other parts of her body.

After Barret and Cid had found out about my little 'crush', as Reeve had called it, they had begun to talk to me a lot. Making a few remarks about the girl and how she 'had a nice ass' or 'she was too skinny', or random comments of the like.

So I suppose it wasn't surprising that I started to take these things into account to find out, to my horror, that these things are true. I never liked secondary sources.

Eventually (inevitably), Reeve found out.

From Cid.

I wasn't very pleased. I had entrusted both of them with my secret. I suppose I shouldn't have trusted Cid of all people. Oh well, it wasn't like I was keeping it away from anyone anyways. No one ever asked.

Reeve was… delighted, to say the least. I think he has grown a fancy towards me. He treats me a lot like a man would treat his daughter. I don't tend to complain, there are a lot of benefits that come from it, like being able to keep an eye on the Head of the Intelligence Division, for one.

'Keeping and eye on' meaning, of course, to subject myself to creating puddles on the floor while watching her every move.

I suppose that it's my fault, really. I know they say a person can't choose who they love, but I really wished I had chosen someone else.

It's not that I didn't like her… it's that I didn't like me liking her. It's a bit difficult to explain.

To be completely honest, I don't think she likes me very much in the first place. 

She always greets me, because it's who she is, but I find it difficult to have a conversation.

Not only do I not have anything to talk to her about, I also tend to get a bit nervous and self-conscious of what I say, and every thing I say to her is calculated. I mean, I'm always making sure my sentences are calculated, it's who I am, but I become more distressed when she's around me.

If I was really a robot, like she says I am, I'd have short-circuited by now from the stress it takes to talk to her.

Never-the-less, Reeve had asked her to look after me for the day. A wink placed in his sentence at my direction when she wasn't looking would have caused me to blush had I been able to express emotion like a normal person. All I got was a bit of pink that was not even visible, although I did have this odd feeling of cold-warm water down my spine. I think it might be embarrassment.

Yeah, I think it was.

I wondered for a little bit what type of things she would do if she found out that I liked her. Would she stop hanging around me? Would she avoid me like a plague? Would she never speak to me?

_Would she accept me?_

"Hey Shelke! Want to help out a little bit? I'd really appreciate it!"

It was foolish to wish for more than friendship. I stood up and dusted myself off, smiling towards the ninja. That's all I could wish for. Friendship, and that she would always be happy and smile, and even laugh, when I'm around, or when I'm just watching her.

"Thank you! Means a whole lot! It gets tiring, y'know?" She patted my back graciously, grinning at me from ear to ear as she handed me an extra rag.

Sometimes the person you love will be happy, and it's a sad, sad, but very real thing that usually that happiness won't be made by you.

"Who do you like anyways?" she asked after a while of working and small talk.

I forced a small blush and looked dreamily out the windows towards the sky on the other side.

"It's a love that shall never be returned."

She huffed and looped her arm around my shoulders, as if giving me an awkward but manly hug.

"You never know until you try!"

It was nice to dream though.


	3. Mother

**I intend to make this actually… longish. And have a plot thing. And stuff. **

**But I might give up or something. Although it does feel nice to write about something no one has ever written about before. Like I can do anything with it and it'll be original, just because. **

**It's a good feeling.**

--

I'm dying.

I know they try to avoid telling me, but I am.

The mako treatments have stopped, and I'm withering away. My body has gotten used to mako too much.

I bet Shalua would have known how to cure me…

"Y'know, I bet we can bring Shalua back to life."

I turned towards the girl who had spoken. She had been here a while. Reeve called us for a mission and she had sat down because he was taking a long time.

He looks really sad lately.

"Why do you say that?" I ask. My heart beat seems to go a little faster.

"Well, I don't think she's entirely dead. She's just in a coma, y'know? I bet she can awaken. We just need to figure out…" She looked deep in thought; her eyebrows were brought together in intense concentration.

I smile. She really is trying to help me. She probably knows Shalua would be useful in finding out how to keep me alive. But she was also friends with Shalua. I guess she'd be killing two birds with one stone in this situation.

"I agree." I wish I knew _how_ though. I wish I could bring my sister back to life…

"Vwah, really?! Ah, huh…" She reddened a bit, embarrassed by… my comment? I have no clue, but it seems she is. She does get easily flustered… She seems to get nervous when she receives thanks and compliments from people she never gets them from.

The other day Vincent Valentine had told her that he liked the food she had cooked for the bar one evening and her face flushed red. When Cid had told her the same thing, she told him he couldn't be able to tell because he didn't have any taste buds left because of the cigarettes and hit him over the head with the frying pan.

I wondered if she would have reddened up had I complimented her too, but I wasn't feeling particularly well that day and had refrained from eating, lest I throw it back up. I would rather not eat her food at all, then eat it and vomit it on the floor. It would be… rude.

"Hello, welcome you two." Reeve Tuesti entered the room, smiling at us as he placed the folders he had brought in on his desk, not taking a seat.

"I want to let you know… We think we might have found a way to bring Shalua…" He seemed withdrawn, as if he was unsure if we would be glad about this. He didn't seem very confident in himself either. I suppose, this is the drawback of Reeve, he doesn't have much courage in himself and sometimes not even in others.

"What?! REALLY?! That's great Reeve! Oh my god!" She seems really happy. She jumped out of her seat, and over his desk to tackle him into the floor, crushing him in a bear-like hug.

"Augh! Yuffie! Let go please!" I winced a little. Ouch, that looks like it hurts. Although I wouldn't mind if she held me like that, even if it was painful…

"Sorry Reeve! How'd you find out anyways? Huh? Huh?" She stood up and offered him a hand, which he gratefully took. Ouch again, I heard a crack. Yuffie probably heard it too, because she suddenly looked worried.

"Yowch, Reeve, you okay…?" she asked nervously, helping him into his chair.

"It seems I must remind you how old I am Yuffie," he laughed, waving her off. She still looked guilty however. She'd probably repay him back by cooking him dinner. She never did it often and when she did…

It was like being in heaven. Cid said it was "like sex on a plate", but I don't intend to imagine what eating that might taste like.

"Well, enough about that. My situation is not as important," he said, turning towards me. For a while it was quiet. I wondered if I should say something.

"What did you find out?" Her serious voice. She sure knew how to make people comfortable. Even if I knew what to say most of the time, I still had my faults, sometimes I didn't know what to say.

"It's actually very simple… There is ancient materia we have located that seem to have hidden energies," at this, Reeve took out a folder and showed us images of various things and essays containing information on the pictures. "It seems to have been able to cure countless things and in a writing said 'brings the dead back to life'. I do not think it was dead people it brought back to life, but those who could not wake up…"

Reeve looked at both of us and smiled.

"You are following me?"

"Those in a deep sleep…"

"Those in comatose."

Don't think I didn't see that glimmer in your eyes. I know how you get around materia and when there is a scent of adventure in the air.

"Of course, we could keep treating Shalua with the drugs that we are now in hopes that she will awaken sometime in the future, but…" Reeve glanced at me and promptly locked eyes with the images on his desk.

But me. Shalua could be awakened in a few months, maybe, by the physical and drug therapy she is going through, but me. I'm the cause for this.

I suppose it's not a bad thing. I mean, _**I**_ don't have anything to loose…

"The problem is… We couldn't find the materia anywhere in the ruins… It seems that it has been removed…" Reeve grimaced and looked through his papers for something. "But we found a map. As if they hid it on purpose, this ancient civilization…"

I suddenly had this feeling of being in lukewarm water. I looked around and it seemed time had stopped. Or it was going very very slow, for I could still see Reeve move a bit.

A sing song voice seemed to echo across the room, but when I looked around there was nobody to be found.

_Oh those Cetra, they sure don't know how to make jokes._

A giggle from nowhere from a voice I've never heard before.

It was odd, but I felt at home, as if…

"Mom…?" I asked in a questioning tone, hearing a huff from the voice.

_  
Oh, you too? I was hoping no one would call me that anymore, it makes me feel old._

Another giggle.

Oh great.

Another voice in my head.


End file.
